Places

17 May 2017

Trekking to Everest Base Camp

Mt. Everest, aka Sagarmāthā in Nepal, is the planet’s highest mountain. Its peak is 8,848 m above sea level. Mt. Everest attracts many climbers, some of them highly experienced mountaineers. While not posing substantial technical climbing challenges on the southern standard route, Mt. Everest
presents dangers such as altitude sickness, weather, and wind, as well as significant hazards from avalanches and the Khumbu Icefall. As of 2016 CE there are well over 200 corpses on the mountain, some of which serve as landmarks. The 2017 CE Mt. Everest summit season kicked off to a big start, set to be
the largest climbing season in the modern history of the mountain with 365 people on 39 teams from around the world, just on the south/Nepali side.

(South) Everest Base Camp is in Nepal at an altitude of c. 5,365 m and is a rudimentary camp site on Mt. Everest that is used by mountain climbers during their ascent and descent. Supplies are shipped to the Everest Base Camp by Sherpas or porters, and with the help of animals, usually yaks. It has become a "Global Village" for about two months every year as hundreds of people from around the world undertake expeditions to the mountain.

The 14-day Everest Base Camp Trek is one of the most popular trekking routes in the Himalayas and is visited by many trekkers each year. Trekkers usually fly from Kathmandu to Lukla to save time. There are no roads from Kathmandu to Lukla and as a result, the only method of transporting large and heavy goods is by STOL plane. From Lukla, climbers trek upward to the Sherpa capital of Namche Bazaar, c. 3,440 m above sea level, following the valley of the Dudh Kosi river. It takes about two days to reach the village, which is a central hub of the area. Typically at this point,
climbers allow a day of rest or do a day trip to Everest View Point (c. 3,860 m above sea level) for acclimatization. They then trek another two days to Dingboche (c. 4,260 m above sea level), before resting for another day for further acclimatization. Another two days takes
them to Everest Base Camp (c. 5,365 m above sea level) via Gorak Shep (c. 5,140 m above sea level).

The Sherpas are a Buddhist ethnic group from the most mountainous region of Nepal, the Himalayas, and most Sherpa people live in Nepal's eastern regions. Sherpas are highly regarded as elite mountaineers and experts in their local area. They were immeasurably valuable to early explorers of the Himalayan region, serving as guides at the extreme altitudes of the peaks and passes in the region, particularly for expeditions
to climb Mt. Everest. Today, the term sherpa is often used to refer to almost any trekking or climbing guide hired for trekking or mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas, regardless of their ethnicity.

Namche Bazaar is a famous and remote mountain village in the Solukhumbu District; it is located within the Khumbu area at an altitude of c. 3,440 m. It is the main trading center and hub for the Khumbu region. Namche Bazaar is also popular with trekkers in the Khumbu region, especially for altitude acclimatization, and is the gateway to the high Himalayas. On Saturday mornings, a lively weekly market is held in the centre of the village where local people from the surrounding valleys spread out their agricultural products, and traders from Kathmandu sell their
goods carried by yak trains or human porters into Namche Bazaar.

I have always been fascinated by the human face. There are seven billion faces on this planet which are changing every second in order to adjust their senses, optimize perception and communicate. Thereby, the human face creates an incredible diversity of expressions, offering a unique bouquet of information to other humans. That's what I capture with my camera…

Feel free to check out my Flickr photo albums about cultural portrait photography at Facing the World. You can contact me via email.

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What's a Portrait?

A portrait is a photograph or any other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally more than a (candid) snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer.

About Street Portraiture:

(i) The Street Photographer’s State of Mind

Get yourself into a resourceful, open-minded and relaxed state of mind, leave your hide-out and interact with the world. Use a silly hat, have a drink, or apply any of those fancy “think-positive” techniques. Your own state of mind will spread to and infect your portrait subject...

(ii) The Street Photographer’s Intention

Release the shutter with the deliberate intention of “Right now, I'm producing a distinctive portrait photograph”. Find your individual style by applying self-imposed technical constraints (e.g. of the theme, of the aspect ratio, of the techniques, of the lenses, of the composition); less is more...

(iii) The Street Photographer’s Waiver

Decide if it’s better to give it a miss instead of taking a bad photo. In the field, if there is a shred of doubt, don’t take this snap. It’s probably better to take a cerebral snapshot and to enjoy the situation. At your computer, if there is a shred of doubt, delete the image; it’s probably better to download a good image from the internet and to learn from it...

(iv) The Street Photographer’s Attitude

Trust the viewer's active mind. Your photo is just a small trigger for the bigger and better internal picture inside the viewer’s mind. Allow the viewer’s mind to create interesting internal pictures (and movies) by offering images of (a) parts and details, (b) symbols and logos, (c) contrasts and contradictions. Co-operate with the viewer’s creative mind, keep the viewer’s mind busy and seduce your viewer to complete your photo, to improve your photo, to add (her or his) sense to your photo, to fantasize about your photo, and to mentally exceed your own photo...

(v) The Street Photographer’s Tools

Remember the meaning of the word photography and master the light with your eye, with your camera and with your computer: (a) see the light, (b) harness the light and (c) bend the light. But, bear in mind, your shoes are your most important piece of equipment. Use them liberally to get closer (or further away, sometimes), to play with angles and to find your unique point of view...

About Portrait Lenses:

The first thing to consider is focal length. If you're using a camera with an APS-C format image sensor (e.g. my old and robust Nikon D3100), a 50mm lens will give an effective focal length of around 75mm to 80mm. This is very close to the 85mm focal length that's considered ideal for portraiture. It enables half-length portraits to be taken from a comfortable distance of around 3m, so you can direct your subject without crowding in and making them feel awkward.Use an 85mm lens on an APS-C camera, and you'll be able to take head-and-shoulders portraits from about the same distance. One particular advantage of using an 85mm lens for portraiture is that the short telephoto focal length has the effect of slightly compressing any prominent facial features (think noses and chins) for a bit of added flattery.Generally, prime lenses offer superior image quality to zoom lenses, which makes the optics on test instantly appealing. Their killer feature, however, is a wide maximum aperture that's usually between f/1.4 and f/1.8 (e.g. my reliable AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G lens from Nikon). This enables a tight depth of field, so you can blur fussy backgrounds and make the person you're shooting really stand out in an image.